Monday, June 05, 2006

Berries and Butter

I just spent the past week and a half in the land of misery, first accompanied by a painful sinus infection, which later in the week traded places with a wheezing cough. It is said that you’re supposed to stay positive because mental anguish keeps your immune system down, but that’s not so easy when you can’t do any of the things that make you happy! I did manage to finish a pair of socks I’ve been working on though, toe-up with a k2, seedstitch 2 pattern in lovely Sundara yarn which I snagged while it was available from Pure Knits.The color is called cupid, but I’ve named my socks Berrystain Socks because they look like they were stained by smashed blue-, rasp-, black- and strawberries. Hmmm, berries…. I also started the back of Buttercup after I received my exchange yarn, pale grey-blue Ripple. Kim Hargreaves does have excellent customer service, they didn’t charge me for shipping (I only paid shipping the yarn back to them) and my yarn got here so fast. So nice. But (oh why does there have to be a but), the pattern leaves me with questions already. It’s a bit vague sometimes. When you’re supposed to do a k3tog for the armhole decreases (at beg and end of one row), why would you not do k3togtbl at the beginning of the row and the k3tog at the end? I mean, I know I don’t have to follow the pattern exactly, but is there a reason for doing it this way? And when it says: continue in pattern after the k3tog, is the pattern only the pattern repeat, or does that include the k2 with which you start and end the row? And if it does include the k2, wouldn’t it be better to k1, then k3tog, then k1 before going into the repeat, to make seaming nicer? Have I confused you yet? Maybe I should wait until I'm off the medicine.Here is the back so far:If you're thinking of ordering a kit from her website, check the size diagram closely, you might be able to save some money by ordering your right size. I ordered the medium but ended up casting on for the small, thanks to a lucid moment where I compared the back measurements to a fitted cardi I have. My gauge was so spot on I measured twice just to make sure.Thanks for all your input on the quilting! It's been very helpful and I've decided to make a baby quilt first, that way I can approach it with a different eye. My sewing machine is in the repair shop right now, the weekender bag left some scars and it refuses to stitch anything other than straight stitch. But until it gets back home I've got plenty of time for fabric shopping. My eyes are glazing over at the very thought.

its not the medicine. I find also that many patterns don't dive you the "best" way to do it, but rather a more simple way, for fear of confusing people, and they rely on advanced knitter to figure it out. I always K1 before decreasing, and dc before last stitch. I think its a better edge for joining.Feel better.

Gorgeous new color - much better than the previous one. I'm glad to hear you got good customer service - that's a big one for me. I would do the decreases as you figured rather than as specified in the pattern - makes more sense to me. Get well soon so you can fully enjoy that fabric shopping.

ohhh sorry to hear that you have been feeling low. hope you feel better soon.

buttercup is looking gorgeous. you have already managed to get so much completed! it makes me lament the demise of my own buttercup. (and yes, i also bought the medium size). i did the armhole decreases as written in the pattern, however to be honest i don't think it actually really matters because it kinda gets hidden in all the lacework.

ohhh sorry to hear that you have been feeling low. hope you feel better soon.

buttercup is looking gorgeous. you have already managed to get so much completed! it makes me lament the demise of my own buttercup. (and yes, i also bought the medium size). i did the armhole decreases as written in the pattern, however to be honest i don't think it actually really matters because it kinda gets hidden in all the lacework.

Those are some gorgeous socks! I love your interpretation of the color. It makes me wonder if you could, in fact, dye sock yarn with berry juice. The stuff never wants to come out of T-shirts, after all. ;-)

I'm going to have to browse a bit through your posts to see if I can track down the pattern you used. It's a lovely, simple texture--doesn't fight with the yarn at all.

I love the simplicity of your socks! I've got to try that. KH patterns and Rowan ones on the whole are written kind of sloppily, they always leave the thinking to the knitter. However, I can't agree with you more on KH's stellar customer service, she even called Hong Kong personally to smooth out an order earlier on.

your socks are berrylicious! they look so nice. and your buttercup... now i'm not regretting so much that i haven't ordered one. reading your questions about the directions sent my eyes spinning and blurring and... it seems too complicated for me.